sushirrito

Places like Specialty's, Mixt Greens, Boxed Foods, and The Sentinel—mostly American lunch stops—are the kings of the midday scene in the FiDi and SoMa. The Asian food sector doesn't get a lot of love, but over the past few years, a few brave, new, quick-service spots are introducing the likes of banh mi, sushi, ssam and adobo to the multi-ethnic working masses. Detractors grumble about sticker shock, but many workers are happy to pay a few extra bucks to know where the meat comes from, or to be able to customize their lunch at will.

It's been 12 months of good eating. After reviewing all my past blogs, I've pulled out some—though clearly not all—of the most delicious dishes from 2011 and listed them in no particular order. A couple are new discoveries to me (see L'Ardoise), some are rediscoveries (see Kiss), but most are new as of this year.

Where there's smoke there's fire. Where there's a line of 20-somethings happily waiting in a long line, heads down, tweeting on their iPhones, there's some trendy form of food to be had—whether it's grilled cheese or sushi the size of a burrito.

Thus, I didn't really need to know where exactly where Sushirrito was to find it. Even at 2 pm, the tiny, new to-go restaurant had a line snaking down a block of New Montgomery off of Market Street—the block usually known for its line of people waiting for sandwiches at The Sentinel. I had just gotten back from Crunch, the gym next door, and in the locker room, I overheard two women discussing the scene with the wide-eyed curiousity of a couple freeway rubberneckers.